2018: A Year in Review

Can you believe December is here and almost over? Winter is around the corner with Christmas right next door. This year has been full of emotions for the Newman family. Joy, sadness, anxiety, stress, depression, and more joy.

January was uneventful and February started off the same until mid-month we received word Vernon’s birth mother was not doing well and was in the hospital. So we started making plans to go to Korea, praying all along that she would get better. We flew out the last week in February and spent 10 days with her not knowing that when we left if we would see her again. She passed a week later.

Although mommy is gone we are glad we spent some of her finals days with her. And are even more grateful we had her in our lives for nearly 18 years.

March, April, May, June and July were busy months for us on the farm. We expanded the garden and dug trenches and beautified it more to suit our needs. Then August was happy chopping trees and stacking wood and when our 1 yr old Calico cat, Rainbow had her first kitten.

The poor kitten only lived for a day and half. We were so sad. So a couple weeks later we got Rainbow a kitten to love again, Lady Sunshine was her name. And then one Sabbath afternoon coming home from church, just in time to put the animals up for the night… We could not find Rainbow. We called and called but she never came home and Lady was all alone. So we considered getting more kittens. Then a week after losing Rainbow, tragedy struck again.

Lady loved climbing up under the car and Vernon needed to go to town but forgot to check to see where Lady was. She was a sweet little one who had a short vibrant life. We still miss her. But that very day we had an appointment to get 2 new kittens. So Lula Mae and Princess Gidget fill our days and our hearts with laughter and fun.

September, October, November were filled with ministry, food prep for storage, canning and family get-togethers. At the beginning of October while chopping and splitting and stacking more wood, Soñée had an accident, nearly severing her finger in the wood splitter. But praise God no lost finger and it’s healing quite well! The middle of November we posted about our hens being attacked by a hawk. Specifically our sweet girl Gimpy was in the clutches of the hawk but we saved them all and got the hawk to go away. Unfortunately our girl Gimpy died a week later.

In that same week that Gimpy died, we got word that Vernon’s adoptive mother passed away on her birthday. We knew the time was coming but the realization of losing two mothers in the same year was a bit much to take. But God never gives us more than we can bare. On December 2 we made the long journey to Pennsylvania to say good-bye to mommy. She will be greatly missed. The joy came in knowing she is at rest and we will see her and mommy Yun one day soon on that great getting up morning.

Through mommy’s death it brought family together that had not been so in many years. It was a wonderful time of reunion.

Recent joys have brought two new puppies into our lives. They are loving and fit right in with our other two dogs.

Although 2018 brought sadness God filled us with much joy. We wish you much joy even in the face of sadness.